Wednesday June 10, 01:53 PM
Lufthansa sees drop in freight, passenger traffic
FRANKFURT (AFP) - The leading German airline Lufthansa (Xetra: 823212 - news) reported on Wednesday a drop in passenger and freight numbers last month, both at the parent company and its subsidiary Swiss.
Lufthansa carried almost 4.9 million passengers in May, a drop of 5.1 percent from the same month a year earlier, a statement said.
Over the first five months of 2009, the annualised fall was 6.3 percent.
Swiss carried 1.5 percent fewer passengers in May, for a total of 1.16 million, the statement added.
But for the January-May period, the drop registered by Swiss was limited to just 0.8 percent.
Lufthansa said it had trimmed capacity by 1.2 percent in May, while Swiss cut it by 3.3 percent.
For the group as a whole, monthly passenger numbers were off by 4.4 percent.
"It is mainly demand for first class and business class tickets that has declined," Lufthansa boss Wolfgang Mayrhuber told the Financial Times Deutschland (FTD) in comments that appeared on Tuesday.
He still expected the carrier to post an operating profit this year, however.
Results were worse at the airline's freight division.
Lufthansa Cargo reported a 9.1 percent drop in activity, with 125,000 tonnes carried in May.
In the five months since January, freight activity was down by 21.4 percent.
Mayrhuber lashed out earlier at financial market speculators he said were causing volatile oil prices that is hammering the airline industry.
In an interview with the FTD, he said: "Financial speculators now have an enormous influence on our business."
Calling for stricter regulation, he added: "The old rule whereby supply and demand dictated the price of a certain raw material no longer applies."
The price of a barrel of oil shot up at an unprecedented rate last year to touch a peak of around 147 dollars (104 euros) before plunging as the global economy tumbled into recession.
But in the past three months, the price has begun to climb once more, rising from 47 dollars to more than 71 dollars a barrel on Wednesday.
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